[Market-farming] Organic Remedies for Pest Control
Robin Follette
list at seasonseatingsfarm.com
Sat Jun 13 06:40:30 EDT 2009
>>>Spraying is okay, but unless you rotate the agents you use, you will quickly see CO potato beetle resistance (so I am told). If you were to back up the calendar, you could plant hairy vetch early the fall before and plow down all of it, as a nitrogen providing cover crop, except for a border around your crop, that should deter the beetle from moving into the spuds.
If I were to be able to stop the snow a month earlier, thaw the ground and control spring rain I could probably also back up the calendar.
>>>Unless you grow alot of taters, you can pick them off and pinch them dead or put them in a can of kerosene or Diesel fuel or maybe gasoline.
We grow more than can be managed by hand picking.
>>>Also, rotating your crop to a distant location the next year will help.
I always rotate. They're here this year, a half mile away next year.
>>> Lastly, work with my Cornell veg specialist has indicated that planting buckwheat next to the spuds attracts beneficial predators of the beetle. I much prefer mechanical and\or cultural controls to pesticides that result in resistance, which CO spud bug seems to have a knack for.
There isn't any extra place to plant buckwheat. Think Eliot Coleman's farm and layout - that's what I do. To control CPB I have to either not grow potatoes and eggplant or use pesticides responsibly. When there are more larva than the chickens and ducks can control I lock the birds up and use an organic pesticide.
Robin
Seasons Eatings Farm
Talmadge, Maine
"Without power over our food, any notion of democracy is empty." - Frances Moore Lappe
Kurt Forman
Clearview Farm
Palmyra, NY 14522
--- list at seasonseatingsfarm.com wrote:
From: "Robin Follette" <list at seasonseatingsfarm.com>
To: "Market Farming" <market-farming at lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Organic Remedies for Pest Control
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:30:43 -0400
Spinosad. There's info here: http://www.planetnatural.com/site/monterey-garden-insect.html
Robin, in rainy Maine where temps are below average this year.
Robin Follette
Seasons Eatings Farm
Talmadge, Maine
"Without power over our food, any notion of democracy is empty." - Frances Moore Lappe
----- Original Message -----
From: michelle rome
To: Market Farming
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 6:20 AM
Subject: [Market-farming] Organic Remedies for Pest Control
Still have potatoes growing in SC middle of June. The beetles have finally made it to my potatoes. I am looking for organic remedies. I have gone more to compost fertilizing my limited crops this year. (The corn I have put some nitrogen to it). So I am organic like. I am looking for cheap & simple pest remedies.
Michelle Hromyak
Romy Farms E&W SC
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Robin
Seasons Eatings Farm
Talmadge, Maine
"Without power over our food, any notion of democracy is empty." - Frances Moore Lappe
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